The Boston Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 on Monday and finished the NBA Finals 4-1 on aggregate, ending a title drought that dated back to 2008.
The green franchise thus adds 18 rings and breaks the tie it had with the Los Angeles Lakers to once again be the winningest in the history of the North American basketball league.
“Oh my God, we did it. It’s a surreal feeling. We did it!“, exclaimed on the court an excited Jayson Tatum, the leader of the Celtics and figure of this memorable night at the TD Garden with 31 points and 11 assists.
On the Mavericks side, the big surprise of these playoffs, Luka Doncic closed the first Finals of his extraordinary career with 28 points and 12 rebounds.
The beating they received on Friday in Dallas, where They were crushed by a 38-point lead, it didn’t affect the Celtics’ moraledetermined to take advantage of their second chance in front of their 19,000 fans.
Boston’s 18th crown, in 23 Finals played, restores the pride of a franchise that, after dominating the NBA for decades, He had barely hung a championship flag since the legendary Larry Bird’s last title in 1986.
In that period, the Lakers had caught up with them at the top with eight wins, the last of them in 2020.
Under an electric atmosphere at TD Garden, the Mavericks were outmatched from the start by the best team of the season and said goodbye to the dream of being the first team in history to overcome a 3-0 deficit in the playoffs.
Luka Doncic could not dominate the game like in his exhibition on Friday and Kyrie Irving was held to 15 points in another frustrating night in Boston, where he is received as enemy number one since his controversial departure from the Celtics in 2019.
With his former team’s victory sealed, Irving greeted his rivals on the court when the Mavericks They retired their starters with two minutes remaining.
The blackout of the Dallas superstars left the game in the hands of the Celtics orchestra, the team that has dominated with All-Star talents such as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown (21 points) and some of the best secondaries in the league, such as point guards Jrue Holiday (15), Derrick White (14) and Dominican Al Horford (9), who inaugurated his record at the age of 38.
Kristaps Porzingis (5), after two games out due to injury, also returned to the command of Joe Mazzulla who, at 35 years old, He established himself as one of the youngest coaches to win the championship.
After seven seasons together, Tatum and Brown achieved their long-awaited first ring as leaders of the Celtics, erasing the disappointment of the defeat two years ago in the Finals against the Warriors.
Dallas disappointment
Boston’s TD Garden dressed up on Monday to complete the victory they had been waiting for since 2008 when a team led by Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen He stopped Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol’s Lakers.
The Mavericks needed to set the pace early as in their only win of the series but Doncic and Irving were very inaccurate, missing their first five shots.
On the other side, Tatum and Brown also suffered from their nerves, but the Celtics took advantage of a drop in Dallas’ guard to score nine consecutive points in one frenetic minutewhich gave them a 28-18 lead at the end of the first quarter.
After opening his locker, Tatum warmed up and attacked again and again. again the painting of the premiseswho could not respond to the lack of success of Doncic and Irving.
In an already lethal punishment for Dallas, the Celtics struck again at the end of the quarter with a triple from half court by Payton Pritchard at the buzzerhis second in the series, which brought ecstasy to the stands.
Boston thus increased its lead to 67-46 and did not relax upon returning from the locker room against the Mavericks who also did not know how to rebel against their ineffectiveness from the outside line.
Between Doncic and Irving just They scored one of the first 13 triples they attemptedmaking the work of the Celtics’ renowned defense easier.
The Mavericks couldn’t get closer and the biggest unknown of the fourth quarter focused on determining whether Tatum would achieve enough records to snatch the MVP award. to Jaylen Brown, who until now was the big favorite.
